Bahamas News

The dispute has been going on for many years, some say from the early days of Freeport’s development when the visionary pioneers of the Magic City concluded that Freeport’s industrial growth was not moving at the pace they had envisaged and began focusing on also developing the planned city as a tourist resort.

Indeed, even before big-time gambling was introduced in Grand Bahama in the early 1960s, taxi drivers began agitating through the Grand Bahama Taxi Union for greater access to the Freeport area, which was established as a private enclave under the Hawks-bill Creek Agreement, signed August 4, 1955. That agreement gave the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) virtually full autonomy over the area it planned to develop, and although there have been some modifications to it over the years, Freeport is still very much a private development. It is this fact that has been central to the on-going dispute between taxi drivers and tour operators in Grand Bahama.

Both Freeport Harbour and the Grand Bahama International Airport are privately owned, but there was a time when they were the “exclusive” domain of taxi drivers with regard to transporting visitors arriving in Grand Bahama. As tourism increased, however, the inadequacy of available ground transportation for visitors from both the airport and the harbour became quite apparent, and it was determined that the solution was to allow tour buses to also have access to these two ports of entry.

The taxi drivers, naturally, viewed this as encroachment on their territory, and voiced strong objection to the proposed changes. The GBPA stepped in and helped to broker an agreement between the taxi union and the Tour Operators Association of Grand Bahama that allowed tour buses to pick up pre-arranged transfers from both the airport and the harbour and transport them back to these two ports of entry

Based on the agreement that had been brokered, effective January 1, 2003, officials at the Port Authority were optimistic that they had put that problem behind them, and were confident that Grand Bahama was poised to benefit significantly from the new business that would be forthcoming from an increase in cruise ship arrivals.

The expected sustained period of good relations between the taxi drivers and the tour operators never materialized. Indeed, an ugly incident erupted a short time after the agreement was reached with tour operators and taxi drivers arguing openly in front of tourists over who had the right to transport them.

This sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable. Yet such incidents continue to occur periodically, as was the case recently when a tour operator was accused of falsifying coupons to indicate that passengers arriving on a cruise ship had prepared for transportation by his company. This situation almost got out of hand, but it did not because of the strict guidelines put in place by the Road Traffic Department to govern the terms of the agreement.

In addition to those guidelines, a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) recently was established to mediate such disputes, and its make-up suggests that there is good reason to believe that both sides will accept decisions reached by this committee and some degree of harmony will prevail between the two feuding groups.

Chaired by Road Traffic Controller Jack Thompson, members of the committee include Dr. Doswell Coakley, chairman of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, who represents the GBPA; Canon Harry Bain, rector of the Pro-Cathedral of Christ the King; and Earl Godet, who represents the taxi union.

The taxi drivers, of course, hold the key as to whether or not the road ahead for those involved in the ground transportation business in Grand Bahama is a smooth one. There are some 600-plus taxi cabs in Grand Bahama, and obviously this fact has made competition for passengers more fierce. With the decline in tourist arrivals that the island has experienced over the past two years as a result of the loss of one-third of its hotel rooms following the closure of the Royal Oasis, that competition has become even more fierce.

What’s more, there are occasional reports of unscrupulous drivers overcharging visitors who are not familiar with what it costs to transport them to their destination. Even if they are, some still get overcharged. For example, under rules put in place by the Road Traffic Department, a taxi taking more than two passengers from the airport to the Westin at Our Lucaya should only charge two passengers $19 dollars each and additional passengers $3 each.

There have been reports of drivers charging each passenger the full fare, knowing full well that their misdeed more likely than not would not be reported to the Road Traffic Department. Nowadays, that could translate into an extremely lucrative trip for some taxi drivers who no longer use cars but rather vans that seat the maximum of 12 stipulated by the Road Traffic Department for vehicles being used as taxi cabs.

Another area of concern is the fact that despite the bi-annual inspection by the Road Traffic Department of vehicles used as taxi cabs, there are still some taxis on the streets that should not still be used for that purpose. Having air conditioning is not one of the “musts” that officials insist on during inspection, but given the climate of The Bahamas, this luxury certainly is something visitors should expect in the transportation that takes them to their hotels.

First impression is always very important. The vehicles used to transport visitors to our shores should be clean and their operators should be friendly and courteous. If the first impression a visitor gets on arriving in The Bahamas is of a disorganized transportation system with many vehicles not up to standard and drivers arguing among themselves, then many of them will choose not to return.

Both the taxi drivers and tour operators should keep this in mind as they go about their daily routine of being among the first to welcome visitors to our country.